Method and Apparatus for Stereo-Based Proximity Warning System for Vehicle Safety
A method and apparatus for stereo-based proximity warning system for vehicle safety. The method comprising capturing a right and a left image utilizing the right and left of stereo cameras, performing stereo analysis and depth computation for comparing and determining the depth deviation between the current depth image with the depth model, updating the depth model when there is minimal or no deviation, otherwise, performing morphological operations for clean-up and connected components analysis, and determining if the object is too close to be safe utilizing the component analysis, and generating a warning when the object is too close.
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This application claims benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/378,785, filed Aug. 31, 2010 and 61/391,859, filed Oct. 11, 2010, which are herein incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and apparatus for stereo-based proximity warning system for vehicle safety.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles have become more intelligent utilizing various technologies. At this time, some vehicles are capable of parallel parking all by themselves and facilitating a safer ride for drivers and pedestrians. However, the current systems are not as accurate or efficient as one would like.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and/or apparatus for proximity warning system for vehicle safety.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONEmbodiments of the present invention relate to a method and for stereo-based proximity warning system for vehicle safety. The method comprising capturing a right and a left image utilizing the right and left of stereo cameras, performing stereo analysis and depth computation for comparing and determining the depth deviation between the current depth image with the depth model, updating the depth model when there is minimal or no deviation, otherwise, performing morphological operations for clean-up and connected components analysis, and determining if the object is too close to be safe utilizing the component analysis, and generating a warning when the object is too close.
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
Described herein is a depth-based detection for sensing the proximity of objects around a vehicle and generating a warning signal for safety purposes. More specifically, the depth-based detection senses objects within a predefined proximity level to the observer, which may be a useful feature in automotive.
The two key components are (1) Depth-sensing: using stereo vision software to recover the depth of the scene as captured by the stereo cameras.
Assuming that objects of interest, such as, pedestrians, bicycles, or other vehicles, occupy a sufficient portion of the cameras' field-of-view, the stereo depth images are processed as follows:
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- a. Threshold the depth image. This filters out those pixels in the depth image that belong to objects farther than the set proximity threshold.
- b. Compute the difference between the estimated background depth and the currently observed depth. This step filters out pixels that are close to the camera but belong to the scene, such as the ground plane.
- c. Apply morphological filters, erosion and dilation, to eliminate spurious measurements.
- d. Apply connected components labeling and size filtering to filter out objects smaller than a size threshold.
- e. Should an object survive the above filtering mechanism, generate a warning signal. We currently communicated this to the user with a graphical overlay.
- f. Maintain the background depth model. In our current implementation, we compute the mean depth, for each row, of all pixels that do not belong to the detected object.
In
Thus, the background model row may be retrieved there exits missing depth pixel. By filling the holes with the above process, the middle-row-left image is converted into bottom-row-left image.
The proposed solution works very reliably under adverse imaging conditions, performs robustly indoors and outdoors, including low-light conditions, and works well even if the depth image is not perfect and/or dense. Hence, this solution is a low-complexity solution that is capable of running in real-time. In addition, the proposed solution does not need to known a priori the class/shape/appearance of an object to be able detect it.
At step 110, the method 100 determines if the analysis shows a deviation from the model. If there is no significant deviation, the method 100 proceeds to step 112, wherein the depth model is updated and proceeds to step 108. Otherwise, the method 100 proceeds to step 114, wherein the method 100 performs the morphological operations for clean-up and proceeds to step 116. At step 116, the method 100 performs a connected components analysis. At step 118, the method 100, utilizing the component analysis, determines of the object is too close to be safe. If it is too close, then the method 100 proceeds to step 120, wherein a warning is generated on a display and proceeds to step 124. If it is not too close, then the method 100 proceeds to step 122, wherein no warning is issued and proceeds to step 124. The method 100 ends at step 124.
While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.
Claims
1. A method for stereo-based proximity warning system for vehicle safety, comprising:
- capturing a right and a left image utilizing the right and left of stereo cameras;
- performing stereo analysis and depth computation for comparing and determining the depth deviation between the current depth image with the depth model;
- updating the depth model when there is minimal or no deviation, otherwise, performing morphological operations for clean-up and connected components analysis; and
- determining if the object is too close to be safe utilizing the component analysis;
- and generating a warning when the object is too close.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the warning is displayed on a display.
3. A apparatus for stereo-based proximity warning system for vehicle safety, comprising:
- means for capturing a right and a left image utilizing the right and left of stereo cameras;
- means for performing stereo analysis and depth computation for comparing and determining the depth deviation between the current depth image with the depth model;
- means for updating the depth model utilized when there is minimal or no deviation and means for performing morphological operations for clean-up and connected components analysis utilized otherwise; and
- means for determining if the object is too close to be safe utilizing the component analysis; and generating a warning when the object is too close.
4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the warning is displayed on a display.
5. A non-transitory computer readable storage comprising computer instruction, when executed performs a method for stereo-based proximity warning system for vehicle safety, the method comprising:
- capturing a right and a left image utilizing the right and left of stereo cameras;
- performing stereo analysis and depth computation for comparing and determining the depth deviation between the current depth image with the depth model;
- updating the depth model when there is minimal or no deviation, otherwise, performing morphological operations for clean-up and connected components analysis; and
- determining if the object is too close to be safe utilizing the component analysis;
- and generating a warning when the object is too close.
6. The non-transitory computer readable storage of claim 5, wherein the warning is displayed on a display.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 31, 2011
Publication Date: Mar 8, 2012
Applicant: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED (Dallas, TX)
Inventors: Goksel Dedeoglu (Plano, TX), Andrew Miller (Sanford, FL)
Application Number: 13/222,195
International Classification: H04N 13/02 (20060101);